Chock and Bates post world-best score as Olympic figure skating gets under way | Winter Olympics 2026
The United States took early control of the Olympic figure skating team event after Friday’s opening day in the southern suburbs of Milan, thanks to the world’s best score this season from Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
The three-time world champions, together on skates since 2011 and married since 2024, set the record with 91.06 points for their program to music by The Guess Who and Lenny Kravitz, securing the most 10 points for a U.S. team entering the Winter Games amid hype.
Chock and Bates, nearly unbeatable since finishing fourth in the individual ice dancing event at the Beijing Games four years ago, skated with the precision and refinement that has defined their rise to the top of the sport.
“We definitely skated really well,” Bates said. “I think we both felt the excitement of starting these Olympics. You never know what to expect with the score. There was even a little delay because they said it in Italian, we were looking for the score, and once we saw it we were elated. To go over 90 is always a great achievement, and to do it to open the Games is even better.”
Introduced at the Sochi 2014 Games, the team event brings together results in men’s singles, women’s singles, pairs and ice dancing, with countries awarding points based on their finishing position rather than their raw score. The format also creates one of the few team environments in figure skating, with skaters watching and cheering from the national team boxes between performances.
The United States maintained its position in Friday’s remaining segments as duo team Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea finished fifth in their short program, while Alysa Liu closed strong in the women’s short program, scoring 74.90 to finish second behind three-time Japanese world champion Kaori Sakamoto (78.88).
After three of the four short programs in the team event, the United States leads the standings with 25 points, followed by Japan with 23 and Italy with 22. Only the top five teams after the short programs advance to the free skate phase.
The Americans arrived in Milan as defending champions after being elevated to gold following the fallout from the Beijing 2022 team event and were widely expected to face Japan for the title. Chock and Bates’ opening result strengthened that position, particularly after Japan placed eighth in rhythm dance earlier in the session.
For Chock and Bates, however, the focus remains on their own performances.
“We’re not focused on that,” Chock said of the broader rankings. “We just do what we do.”
The opening session of the Milano Cortina figure skating program also attracted a high-profile political audience. U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who is in Italy to lead the official U.S. delegation to Friday evening’s opening ceremony, attended the U.S. women’s ice hockey team’s opening game Thursday afternoon, watching the rhythm dance with his wife and three children before an afternoon meeting at the Milan Prefettura with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He was joined by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Fifa president and friend of the administration, Gianni Infantino, sat nearby.
